Day Out at the Portsmouth Vegan Festival

On Saturday the 25th of February, the Guildhall in Portsmouth hosted a Vegan Festival.

Being someone who is interested in sustainable living and cruelty-free alternatives, I was really interested in attending. Given that I’ve never been to an event like this before, I thought that going to one close to home would be a great starting point.

I arrived at the Guildhall at just gone 11 am. Which is when the event officially opened. To my surprise there was already a queue of eager attendees waiting outside, braving the windy weather!

Once inside and my hand was stamped with the green vegan festival stamp of approval, I was free to explore.

Inside there were three main rooms to look around in.

The first room was full of great animal charities and organisations, including some well-known household names such as Greenpeace.

Moving on, the main attraction seemed to be in the Main Auditorium. Once in you were greeted by a sea of different stalls, all selling a variety of products. These included cakes, sweets, pies, chocolate, raw food, beauty & skincare, jewellery, clothing, candles, preserves, cheeses and more.

If you don’t mind fighting your way through crowds, then there are a lot of choices when it comes to what you can buy. Business owners working at their stalls were very welcoming and very open to talking about their products and the ingredients they use.

The final room was full of catering businesses, offering up delicious Vegan delicacies to eat straight away. Some highlights included a Vegan Greek food company, Vegan pepperoni pizza and Vegan sausage rolls.

With that in mind, here are some of the treats that I came away with from the Vegan Festival:

Vegan Cookies

Six vegan cookies in a range of mouth-watering flavours, such as Double Chocolate and Cherry Bakewell.

Vegan Cakes

Six Vegan cakes in a range of flavours including, Chocolate and Orange, Coffee, Lemon Drizzle, Cherry Bakewell, Carrot and Treacle.

Good Full Stop

A new twist on a classic product. These energy bars made by Good Full Stop are gluten-free, dairy-free and have a medium to low glycaemic index. They come in a range of exciting flavours too such as Double Choc and Chilli, Fruit & Nut, Cherry & Maple, Choc & Mint, Raspberry Fruit & Nut, Mocha & Caffeine, Double Choc and Choc & Orange.

Aquapax Water

You might be thinking “water’s already Vegan isn’t it?”

The great thing about Aquapax water is that its selling point is its sustainability. The packaging of this mineral water is sealed from light and air, in a non-leaching, majority paper, carton bottle, which is more sustainable to produce. If you’d like to read more about what makes Aquapax special, then you can find out more about it here.

I Am Natural

Being someone with really tricky skin can sometimes make sticking to cruelty-free products a challenge. So when I came across I Am Natural, I was interested in giving their products a go. I picked up their Avocado Face Cream which has antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties and also their Salve Soothing Calendula for dry and eczema prone skin.

Eden Perfumes

This was a stall I was really excited to see. Eden Perfumes are a company that make 100% Vegan perfumes that are not tested on animals. The biggest selling point though is that their perfumes try to match the scents of your favourite designer brands! Before switching to cruelty-free, I was someone who would be obsessed with Marc Jacobs perfumes, so this was music to my ears! At the festival I picked up two perfumes; No.309 which replicates the smell of Marc Jacobs’ Daisy and No.79 which replicates the smell of Chance.

Blue Designs Candles

I absolutely love the design of this candle. It’s made out of Himalayan Rock Salt which draws in moisture from the room and warms up quickly, keeping your candle burning for longer. The salt also lasts for years, meaning you can re-use time and time again.

So there we have it!

Whether you’re Vegan or not, I hope this post introduced some fantastic companies for you to consider using in the future. If you’re interested, look out for the Portsmouth Vegan Festival which will hopefully be coming back again next year, or find out about any local events happening near you. Feel free to leave a comment below or tweet me @_chloeabigail if you’d like a natter about anything you’ve read here!